All Woman and Springtime
Apr 27, 2012
Author: Brandon W. Jones
Publisher: Algonquin
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-61620-077-0
What a gripping story. The title makes it sound like it might be a nicely lurid romance.
It is anything but that.
The story revolves around the sex trade in South Korea, much of it involving North Korean women that have managed to escape the tyranny of that country, only to find themselves in a situation just as rough.
Il-Sun and Gyong-ho are 17 year old girls living in a state run orphanage in North Korea. Il-Sun was a girl with good "Songbun" (status in the state) and had high hopes for a good marriage. Then her parents both died and while she was put in a "good" orphanage, her chances for a better life were going away quickly.
Gyong-ho, or Gi as she's called, had a horrible life. Her parents were accused of not being good citizens when she was 8 and as a result, her entire family was taken to a work camp. She was tortured, abused, starved and tortured some more... all between the years of 8 and 13. She was finally smuggled out of there by a sympathetic officer and put into the orphanage.
When they are misled and smuggled out of North Korea, they suddenly find themselves in a new and dire situation - they are sold to a brothel owner. Before they can blink they find themselves in situations they have no experience in.
What follows is their attempt to survive and maintain their sanity while being treated as nothing more than sex toys and less than human. They are shuttled between Seoul and Seattle as human cargo, only to be used and abused once again in America. The descriptions of what they endure can be graphic at times.
This book had me in it's grip from beginning to end. I so felt for everyone trapped in North Korea under that regime and was horrified at how the ignorance of those people was used against them for the profit of others.
These poor girls didn't stand a chance from the day they were born. But still...... they fight to live.
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Reviewed by Idgie. If you would like to have the Dew review a book, please contact me at dewonthekudzu@gmail.com
